The past year has been a busy one for Red 5 Studios. After showing off FireFall at conventions for 2+ years, the company began opening servers to select groups of closed beta testers. The ever increasing numbers lead to more and more feedback, which, eventually, let the developers hone in on what was working in the MMO third-person shooter and what wasn’t. What came out of this feedback was a complete overhaul of many core system, from progression to crafting and even dropping a class.

Executive Producer James Macauley goes over the hard decisions and why the developer made the move so late in the game. The sheer synergy between the current systems are almost as impressive as pulling the trigger on such profound gameplay changes. If you haven’t checked out FireFall since earlier this year, we’ll be the first to tell you that it’s a whole different ballgame and for the better.

Hit the jump for the full interview including the gameplay changes, a quick discussion on the new eSports tools and much more.